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Sunday, April 28, 2013

Kids playroom makeover on a budget

The kids are growing up so I thought it was time for a play room overhaul.

No more small plastic Ikea tables and play kitchens, it was a bit sad saying goodbye to some of those old toys. But I had not problem waving bye to all those little plastic pieces of pretend fruit and veg that used to get left all over the house.

Anyhoo this is just a quick post on what I did for the kids while my creative space room was getting reorganised. As my room is out of bounds for the kids I made them their very own craft space.

I pretty much had a budget of $0 for the kids room, although I did go over as I bought new oilcloth for the table and cane baskets. But that's ok - I sold their old Ikea table and kitchen on Ebay and as well as freeing up lots of space the proceeds paid for my little overspend.

Everything else I used was from around the house, existing furniture or the kids already had.

The main focus of the room now is this lovely table which is my old dining room table that we removed from my creative space. I painted the legs white and then stapled pretty oilcloth to the top. It's a fabulous solution as the table is so easy to keep clean and the nice wood is still intact underneath if I want it again in future.

Yup this is all I needed, you don't need to hem oilcloth, I just cut and stapled :)

Boy oh boy has oilcloth had a revamp since I was young, I actually like this Clarke & Clarke one I picked up.

If your looking for a less permant solution you can always just cut the oilcloth to size and use like a regular tablecloth, but I found the kids were always making it slip off the side. So stapled on for me is the way to go.

Then I just painted the chairs white or blue and covered the seats in the same matching oilcloth.

Upcycled dining room chair

Oh my goodness, oilcloth chairs for the kids is amazing, cause my kids are super dooper messy and always spilling stuff. It is so easy to clean crayon, pen and paint just wipe off in a few seconds with a damp cloth like magic.

To store all their craft stuff I used this old pine tv cabinet, pulled off the doors, painted it white and bought some cheap cane baskets. It's so easy for them to pull out to access what they need.

Repurposed old TV cabinet with cane baskets inserted

and no the room does not ever look like these pictures. It's a kids craft and play room and made to be used so it has piles of homework and craft projects underway all the time.

But that's ok I can live with a bit of mess if I get creatively inspired kids in return :)

Linda Vandermeer is a blogger, baker, maker and author of the cookbook '
Sweets on a Stick': More than 150 kid friendly recipes for cakes,
candies, cookies and pies on the go!. Published in the US the book is
available at most online book stores:

Hi, the oilcloth is not cath kidston it is Clarke & Clarks as mentioned above. It's around 10 pounds a meter less, you are right it was not the absolute cheapest around - But I needed under 3 meters for the table and chairs and as I said I sold the old Ikea table and play kitchen which payed for the couple of items I bought. In fact I ended up ahead :) Thanks for popping by and commenting.

Linda you are truly inspiring, you are Australia's 'Martha Stewart I reckon ! As you say ' u can be as expensive or inexpensive as you won't and still get a great result, I'm all for recycling!!! Love love love your work!!!